It was times like these that he realized just how much he relied on Etsu. Without her, he was reduced to asking a strange man who was most likely an enemy for advice. As much as Sarah, Emma, and Mayako meant well, when it came to these matters there was little they could do.

On one hand, he knew he should probably be nice; he wasn't at his best, and there was no one that could help him if he got in a fight, not even Kageko. On the other, though, how far would pretending to be friendly to an enemy get him anyway?

In the end, he ended up being what could best be described as cautiously neutral. "You came." Which was a simple observation, but he wouldn't have been overly surprised if Recheov hadn't showed.

His first question came easily, because it was fresh on his mind. "Kage--the Dusk Remnant," he corrected, recalling what the Memories called her. "There's something wrong...would you know anything about that?" He was really out of his depth when it came to that problem; he could find nothing wrong with the scythe itself, and he was not really sure what else to look for.

"Yeah," Recheov nodded his head.

He passed a glance back to Eld, a familiar smirk across his lips. Or, rather, it'd probably feel familiar by this point. Recheov also happened to be the most casual of the Memories Eld had met.

"She's eatin'. It's makin' her revert."

And he said it so matter-of-factly, too, as if it was some manner of common knowledge, something Eld should've already known.

"Eating...?" Eld frowned; that didn't make any sense. "No, that's not it. She's hungry is the problem; she can't eat anything." Kageko didn't exist in the same space he did. He had only a vague idea of what her world was, but it apparently wasn't a physical place.

So if she didn't have a physical body, how could she be eating? He didn't know how she could be hungry either, but she couldn't have eaten anything; Eld was quite certain he'd remember if he'd met her really in person.

He was so focused on the problem it was a minute before he realized something. "You know about her?" he asked, surprised. None of the other Memories he'd met seemed to know anything about Kageko; they just saw the scythe as some kind of special weapon.

Recheov turned his head back to the village at Eld's first question. This was about the time he would've told him "you'll understand later," but he really hated saying that. If there were hard to understand topics afoot, he needed to find a better way to be dodgy about them. Preferably in a completely casual and inconspicuous way, otherwise he'd just make everything that much more complicated.

Being chincy on the details was actually pretty hard work.

Nevertheless, Eld asked a second question he was much better suited to answer. "Yeah, I know 'bout 'er. She ain't a bad person, she just don't know any better. Can't blame 'er one bit. Honestly, she's just like one of us in that respect. 'Cept she can't really die."

The last part was tacked on like some sort of in-joke that Eld wouldn't find funny even if he got it. Recheov didn't find it too funny, either, but it was hard to tell when he was laughing because something was that sad or when he was laughing at something genuinely funny.

Eld frowned, not entirely getting what Recheov was talking about and how Kageko was like a Memory. He knew her somehow, or at least knew of her, but he got the impression he wasn't going to tell him how no matter how much he asked.

"I don't suppose you know how I can help her." Really, that was the more important question than even what was wrong with her. He had no idea how to solve this, because she didn't exist in physical form. How did you treat a patient who had no body? (Or rather, whose body was currently an inanimate object.)

"Well, I can tell ya this much," Recheov began.

He turned to face Eld slightly, only to point his finger down at the clinic. They could partly see it from here, and it seemed he knew exactly where it was.

"'elpin' one'o y'girls is gonna 'elp the other just the same. Leavin' 'er be is about the only thing ya can do right now, but it ain't an option for ya. There ain't a way ya can just stop fightin' with her, 'specially not with the shit you're up against. But by the time this's all said an' done . . ."

He trailed off, again laughing at an in-joke.

". . . there ain't gonna be much more food left in th'world that'll hurt 'er like this anymore."

"You aren't making any sense," Eld said, crossing his arms in annoyance He had expected a certain level of elusiveness from Recheov, and he definitely knew he'd have to take everything and examine it carefully before he acted on any information he did get. He was not expecting to have comprehensibility be the problem in and of itself.

"What do you mean, 'helping one is helping the other?' And didn't I just say she can't have eaten anything?" Maybe this was a waste of time after all. He was beginning to suspect the man was just plain crazy.

"It'll come to ya soon enough," Recheov waved it off, "When ya meet a guy named Emil, ask 'im for memories. He can, uh, help ya out with that."

"'Cause right now, you're pretty much a busted up toy. Not that I ain't surprised by it. Ya keep doin' things that never 'appened. Ya talk with a gal that stopped existin' at one point -- and poof, that talk never 'appened, either. Ya might've been there, but not t'talk to 'er. Everythin' 'bout 'er is gone, even the marks she left on th'world. Or the marks she left on a kid's 'eart."

He paused a moment, realized how deep he was getting with this, and shook his head slightly. There he was again, rambling some more. No wonder the kid couldn't understand him.

"There's been a lot of people in your life that just up an' stopped existin' in the last week or so. Like I said, a guy named Emil can help ya there," Recheov folded his arms again, "'til then, just keep this in mind: shades don't just eat your body, they eat your soul. An' I guarantee ya, meat ain't gonna make your girl get in a weird way like this."

"I know that," Eld said, referring to what Recheov said about shades, but he still didn't see how Kageko could've eaten anything at all. He focused on being annoyed at the repetition of being told "you'll find out later" in varying ways, which helped him ignore the uneasiness that was welling up at the rest of what he said.

That people could stop existing, that he wouldn't even remember knowing them...it seemed equally impossible, and he was inclined not to believe it, but something about the thought made the pit of his stomach churn.

In any case, his current line of questioning was getting him nowhere, so he tried the subject he originally wanted to ask Recheov about. "Where's Illorex?" All he'd gotten out of him before was a vague answer about how it wasn't a place he could ever walk to. While just as cryptically unhelpful as most of what he was saying, given his experience with Purgatory Eld was at least a little more capable of wrapping his head around what he was saying.

"The Unreal City," replied Recheov.

The name felt so foreign on his tongue, and probably sounded like it to Eld, too -- like there was some bitterness behind the name, some underlying detest from Recheov himself.

"S'where we all come from," he continued, "It's in the dead lands. Ya know how to get there, at least."

He flashed a knowing grin. Obviously, Recheov knew Eld could go in and out of Purgatory at will. Really, there was a lot he knew about Eld . . .

"Due east, somewhere. Thing is, the name says it all: it ain't real, 'least not in the way you're real. It's hoverin' somewhere 'tween existin' and never existin' at all. The only way t'get there is t'have a connection to things that don't exist no more. Ya got that strapped to your back."

Recheov's answer was refreshingly straightforward. Eld's frown finally lifted as he nodded thoughtfully. He had a direction and instructions, more or less--he could handle the rest. However long it took, he would find this Unreal City if it meant getting Etsu back to normal.

...Though, he wasn't sure what he meant about the whole not existing thing. Kageko most certainly existed, and Memories most certainly existed, as he certainly wasn't being hounded by a man who wasn't real.

But then again, maybe it wasn't that Kageko didn't exist. Maybe she had a connection to the Memories...maybe...

He suddenly recalled it. The vision he'd had yesterday, the vision he'd had in the middle of that vision, and the memories that had flooded his mind when he'd awoken, memories of a man that lived the same live as another him, another Eldridge who had no last name, who didn't truly exist in more ways than one.

Pain seared his mind, causing him to double over; it was like looking at a mirror and seeing three reflections all overlapping, and trying to make sense of it. He hadn't had much of a chance for reflection in the last day to think about all that.

"...Who is Attis?" he asked quietly, straightening himself back up. It was risk; mentioning that name had enraged Illorex to the point where he attacked. But there was some connection between him, Eld himself, and Kageko, one that he suspected was central to this whole conflict.

Recheov practically winced at the name. It wasn't the right reaction and he knew that, but it mirrored how he felt and of all things, Recheov was horrid at hiding his feelings.

"An old friend," Recheov replied.

"But not someone ya gotta worry 'bout. You've already met 'im. Tall guy, red hair, handsome as sin. Came by your 'rents to give aid t'the people o'Hillcrest. Done everythin' with the greater good in mind. The real greater good. Fate and all that shit just conspired to fuck it all up for 'im."

Recheov set his jaw tightly. All Eld would have to do was look at the profile of Recheov's face to tell that the latter detail genuinely bothered him. A sore subject that was better left untouched.

"Ya can say that I'm an ally to Attis, but all that really means is I don't wanna see humanity go extinct."

"W-Wait, what do you mean, 'humanity go instinct?'" More than anything else he said, that caught Eld's attention. Truth be told he didn't remember seeing Attis around Hillcrest, but things had been hectic for him for awhile so there's a good chance even if he did he wouldn't have remembered anyway.

"I mean, I know they think my scythe has special powers, but it definitely doesn't have that much power." Kageko could definitely be dangerous, of that much he was sure, but she was not humanity-destroying dangerous. She was no god.

He was glad to hear that Recheov was probably on his side, but he had trouble believing the lives of all his fellow humans were at stake in the current conflict.

Recheov felt the urge to smoke. It was tough, this quitting thing. He hadn't drank or smoked for what felt like forever. The former he understood. The latter seemed to just be some sort of choice of circumstance. Something that got lumped into one big decision that ultimately left him wondering what the hell the point was. Briefly, he wondered if anyone in Hillcrest sold cigarettes. Then he remembered that they wouldn't recognize his existence enough to sell him some cigarettes. Man, this is bullshit.

He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. It was a quick way to get his mind off the want of tobacco. "Yeah. Oh, right. You forgot 'bout that, too."

This was going to be hard to explain. Recheov would have hated the fact that he said anything about human extinction if he could believe the statement was any less inevitable.

"Shades eat souls, right?" he reasoned, "An' they get stronger for it, right? Just a bastion of harvested energy. 'Nough souls can pretty much get ya anythin' ya want, if ya got the know-how to make use of 'em."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. Recheov had claimed some knowledge of Kageko before, but that she was a shade was something a select few people should have known. But there was still a problem with that reasoning.

"Yeah, but she's trapped; she can't eat anyone's soul, even if she wanted to." And she definitely no longer wanted to. Unless...

"W-Wait...unless you're saying...if I were to kill someone with my scythe, she'd eat their soul?" To his credit, Eld sound properly horrified at that prospect. He wasn't too fond of killing in and of itself, but it was something he'd done before. But taking someone's soul like that...

"No, not possible, I'd be able to tell if that happened." Ever since he became aware of Kageko's presence, he'd had the powers of a Reaper, and while he hadn't killed any humans since then he'd fought a Voleur d'Ame, which had a soul. He wouldn't have been able to pass the soul onto the afterlife if it had been eaten.

"Does this have something to do with what's wrong with her?" he guessed. Assuming Recheov was right, anyway, that was the only thing that made sense.